


Wait For It

by swallowthewhale



Series: Killervibe Week [11]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-21
Updated: 2018-06-21
Packaged: 2019-05-26 16:14:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15004583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swallowthewhale/pseuds/swallowthewhale
Summary: Nora meets Caitlin Snow in the past and is determined to find out what happened to her.Killervibe Fanfic Week 2018: Free Day





	Wait For It

Nora tries her dad first, because he’s usually the most forthcoming with information. When she mentions the name, though, Barry frowns. 

“Why are you asking about Caitlin?” Barry asks suspiciously. 

Nora shrugs, prepared for exactly this. “I was curious.”

Barry sighs. “She was a friend and a part of our team a long time ago. I haven’t seen her since you were born.”

Nora perks up at this. “She was there when I was born?”

“She was at your baptism,” he admits, looking a little like he let the cat out of the bag. But Nora can’t get anything else out of him, and Uncle Wally, Grandpa Joe, and Cecile all give similarly frustratingly vague answers to her questions. 

Nora tries her mom next and Iris gives Nora the look that means she can see right through her. 

“Baby,” Iris says. “Why are you suddenly so interested in Caitlin?”

“Uncle Cisco mentioned her the other day,” Nora lies. “And no one ever talks about her.”

Iris looks like she doesn’t quite believe Nora, but doesn’t push. “Caitlin was a friend. She left right after you were born.”

“Why?” Nora presses. 

Iris wraps an arm around Nora’s shoulder. “Nora, sometimes you need to leave to become your best self. Caitlin felt like leaving was the best thing for her.”

“Why does Uncle Cisco look so sad whenever he mentions her?”

Iris pats her shoulder. “I think you should just leave it alone, baby. Some things are best left in the past.”

That leaves Nora with no choice. She has to ask Cisco. Cisco has one photo of himself and Caitlin, him in a tux and her a pretty dress, framed on his dresser. He’d told Nora once it was from her parent’s wedding, and now Nora remembers seeing it being taken. She thinks she understands Cisco’s sadness better now, too, because she saw the way Cisco looked at Caitlin when she wasn’t paying attention, and the way she smiled at him, and them walking down the aisle together before Nora’s parents. It’s not the only photo Cisco has of her, Nora had found the rest hidden in a box in the back of his closet, but it’s the only one on display. 

And so Nora marches into Star Labs, where Cisco is doing something on the computer, plops into a chair next to him, and says, “Tio, will you tell me about Caitlin?”

Cisco’s smile vanishes. He shifts in his chair and doesn’t look at her.

Nora scoots closer. “Please, tio? No one will tell me anything.”

He sighs. “Nora, there’s a reason we don't talk about her.”

"Which is?” Nora asks, eyebrows raised expectantly.

“It hurts too much,” Cisco whispers but he doesn’t let her say anything before he straightens with another sigh. “I met Caitlin on my first day at Star Labs, back when it was a real tech company. Two years before the particle accelerator exploded.”

Nora settles back into her chair, eyes wide.

“We became friends. Me, her, and her fiancee, Ronnie. Ronnie Raymond.”

“Firestorm?” Nora breathes, because weekends at the Steins often involve long stories about Ronnie and Dr. Stein, then Jax and Dr. Stein’s adventures as Firestorm as told by Mrs. Stein, Lily, and Jax himself to little Ronnie and Nora.

“Yeah," Cisco says. "We thought Ronnie died in the explosion, but he actually merged with Dr. Stein and became Firestorm. It was months before we found out they were actually alive.”

Cisco tells her about Dr. Wells being Reverse Flash, about Zoom and their Earth 2 doppelgängers, about Savitar and Killer Frost and DeVoe, glossing over the parts Nora has heard about already.

“I still don’t understand,” Nora eventually interrupts. "Why did Caitlin leave?”

Cisco runs a hand through his hair. "Caitlin left for a lot of reasons. First was because she lost Ronnie again, then because she wanted to figure out who she was after she got her powers, then because she wanted to protect us from Killer Frost. I tried to respect her reasons even if I didn’t understand them. But I couldn’t keep begging her to come back. And when I stopped chasing after her, she never came back.” He holds his hands out, palms up. “So I guess we know what she really wanted.”

Nora decides right then and there that the Caitlin she had met in the past was definitely not the kind of person to indefinitely abandon her best friend. Especially a best friend who she looked at like he hung the moon and stars. So she makes use of the research skills passed on from her mom, the intuition (and stolen CCPD password) from her dad, and the hacking skills taught by Cisco, and finds Caitlin Snow.

Nora marches into Central City Children’s Hospital like she belongs, breezes past the distracted receptionist, and knocks on Dr. Snow's office door. An orderly passes by and redirects her to the lab across the hallway.

Caitlin looks up when Nora knocks on the doorframe and nearly drops the beaker she’s holding. She carefully sets down the beaker, pulls off her gloves, and walks over with an odd look on her face.

“Nora West-Allen,” Caitlin sighs, closing the lab door behind her.

Nora grins. “You remember me.”

Caitlin raises an eyebrow and gestures for Nora to follow her into her office. “It’s hard to forget the girl who randomly shows up claiming to be the future daughter of your friends.”

Nora keeps her mouth firmly shut as she perched on the edge of a chair in front of Caitlin’s immaculate desk. No need to embarrass herself over _that_ mess any further. 

Caitlin folds her hands in her lap. “What can I do for you?”

Nora fidgets under Caitlin’s steady gaze. “Come back?” She asks in a tiny voice. Nora clears her throat and sits up straighter. “Everyone misses you,” she says more desperately. “Cisco especially.”

Caitlin sighs. “Nora-”

“Please just come see him,” Nora begs. “He hasn’t been happy since you left.”

Caitlin presses her lips together. “I’m sure that’s not true.”

“It is,” Nora insists. “He still has your photo on his dresser. He won’t let anyone sit in your chair in the lab. He doesn’t smile at _anyone_ the way he smiles at you.”

Caitlin looks away, to a photo framed on her desk and tilted in just a way that Nora can see that it’s of Caitlin and Cisco, cheeks pressed together and grinning. “Okay,” Caitlin says abruptly. “Okay. But I don’t think he’ll want to see me.”

Nora practically bounces out of her chair. “Yes, he will.”

Nora is very glad to be right when she walks into Star Labs with Caitlin and Cisco envelopes her in a hug the moment he spots her. 

Nora creeps backwards to give them privacy, but listens around the corner as they speak in hushed voices. After a while, she peeks around the corner and proceeds to run laps around the pipeline in glee when she catches them kissing. Nora was so right. She won’t tell them that, but she was _so_ right. 


End file.
